David's Many Wives

And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.” Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives. (1 Sam 25:39-43)

I stumbled upon a web site recently titled “Polygamy in the bible – it really is biblical!”  It was a site dedicated to showing how great men of the bible had multiple wives, and therefore, so should we! The site used David as an example; before it’s all over David will have eighteen wives. Wow.  It’s all I can do to be a good husband to one wife; I can’t imagine eighteen.

But there is something that I believe should be pointed out:  In the instances when David inquires of the Lord about a matter, and heeds the voice of the Lord, things turn out well for David. 

However, when David goes forward without seeking the counsel of Lord, things usually blow up. And come to think of it, I don’t see one instance in scripture where David seeks counsel from the Lord on which woman he should marry, or how many women he should marry. This leads me to believe that as much as David was a man after Gods heart, David may have had an area of weakness in his life; Women! And this weakness led to all kinds of problems in David house.  

Join us Sunday as we continue our study in 1 Samuel.